When Kevin Cril­ly began think­ing about where he could make the great­est impact through schol­ar­ship sup­port, he found him­self return­ing to some­thing he had learned years ear­li­er while work­ing at UC Berke­ley: if you want to make a mean­ing­ful dif­fer­ence in high­er edu­ca­tion in Cal­i­for­nia, don’t over­look com­mu­ni­ty col­leges.

Kevin spent much of his career in phil­an­thropy, includ­ing serv­ing as exec­u­tive direc­tor of gift plan­ning at UC Berke­ley. There, he saw how many stu­dents began their high­er edu­ca­tion at com­mu­ni­ty col­leges before trans­fer­ring into the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia or Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty sys­tems. He also saw how rel­a­tive­ly mod­est finan­cial gaps could deter­mine whether a stu­dent was able to keep going.

“We all, once we get old­er, for­get how you can live pret­ty close to the mar­gin, and how much dif­fer­ence $1,000, $2,500, $5,000 a year will make,” Kevin said. “Most peo­ple don’t think about that.”

That under­stand­ing even­tu­al­ly led Kevin to Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF), where he became a donor sup­port­ing schol­ar­ships for LGBTQ+ stu­dents and allies. Like oth­er donors who sup­port NRCF, Kevin helps pro­vide finan­cial sup­port intend­ed to give stu­dents greater sta­bil­i­ty as they pur­sue their edu­ca­tion. NRCF’s pri­va­cy-first mod­el allows stu­dents to receive that sup­port with­out requir­ing them to pub­licly dis­close their sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion or gen­der iden­ti­ty.

A Pathway That Deserves More Attention

Kevin took a tra­di­tion­al route through high­er edu­ca­tion, earn­ing his under­grad­u­ate degree from George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty and lat­er his law degree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Maine School of Law. But his years work­ing in high­er edu­ca­tion gave him a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive on the role com­mu­ni­ty col­leges play.

“Most peo­ple in Cal­i­for­nia don’t even under­stand what a great mod­el it is,” he said.

For some stu­dents, com­mu­ni­ty col­lege pro­vides an afford­able start­ing point on the way to a bach­e­lor’s degree. For oth­ers, it pro­vides train­ing and cre­den­tials that lead direct­ly into skilled careers. Kevin points to fields such as nurs­ing and the trades as exam­ples of careers where com­mu­ni­ty col­leges can pro­vide a direct path­way into the work­force.

Kevin believes both path­ways deserve greater recog­ni­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly among donors who may nat­u­ral­ly think first about sup­port­ing the four-year col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties they attend­ed them­selves.

His inter­est in help­ing stu­dents nav­i­gate those finan­cial bar­ri­ers is also per­son­al.

“I could­n’t have gone to school with­out piec­ing togeth­er lots of lit­tle funds and schol­ar­ships and loans,” he said.

He worked through­out col­lege, includ­ing dur­ing sum­mers and school breaks. Those expe­ri­ences helped shape the way he thinks about schol­ar­ship sup­port today. For Kevin, the goal isn’t sim­ply to help pay tuition. It’s to pro­vide enough flex­i­bil­i­ty and sta­bil­i­ty that an unex­pect­ed expense does­n’t derail a stu­den­t’s edu­ca­tion.

“I was just try­ing to pro­vide some­thing that’s flex­i­ble and helps sta­bi­lize their life, so they can study and get the degree,” Kevin said.

That same idea is cen­tral to Kev­in’s sup­port of NRCF. Books, trans­porta­tion, hous­ing, food and oth­er neces­si­ties can all affect whether a stu­dent is able to remain enrolled, par­tic­u­lar­ly when they are already liv­ing close to the finan­cial mar­gin. Schol­ar­ship sup­port can help close those gaps before they inter­rupt a stu­den­t’s edu­ca­tion.

NRCF’s pri­va­cy-first approach was anoth­er impor­tant rea­son Kevin chose to sup­port the fund. Before becom­ing involved with NRCF, he had explored oth­er ways to sup­port LGBTQ+ stu­dents but encoun­tered chal­lenges ensur­ing that recip­i­ents could main­tain their pri­va­cy.

“The abil­i­ty to get the mon­ey and yet be con­fi­den­tial” mat­tered, he said. “I don’t want to put a kid at risk.”

Looking Beyond the Four-Year University

Kevin hopes more donors will con­sid­er com­mu­ni­ty col­leges when think­ing about the role phil­an­thropy can play in edu­ca­tion. For stu­dents pur­su­ing a four-year degree, com­mu­ni­ty col­lege can pro­vide an afford­able place to begin before trans­fer­ring to a uni­ver­si­ty. For oth­ers, it can pro­vide the spe­cial­ized train­ing and cre­den­tials need­ed to move direct­ly into a career.

“Skilled jobs are need­ed, and peo­ple need to train for [them],” Kevin said.

But regard­less of where a stu­den­t’s edu­ca­tion leads, Kevin sees the larg­er out­come in much the same way: edu­ca­tion can pro­vide a path­way toward greater finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty.

Some­times the inter­ven­tion need­ed to keep some­one on that path­way is small­er than peo­ple imag­ine. A schol­ar­ship does­n’t need to cov­er every expense to mat­ter. It can help a stu­dent buy books, get to cam­pus, work few­er hours or sim­ply make it through anoth­er semes­ter with­out hav­ing to step away from school.

Giving While the Impact Can Be Seen

Kev­in’s deci­sion to sup­port NRCF also reflects some­thing he came to val­ue after a career spent help­ing oth­er peo­ple plan their phil­an­thropy. He want­ed to give dur­ing his life­time.

“I want­ed to do some­thing today, while I’m alive, and I had the capac­i­ty,” he said. “When I learned about Rain­bow, I thought, yep, this is what I want to do.”

For Kevin, sup­port­ing stu­dents now means hav­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to see what that invest­ment can make pos­si­ble.

Sup­port NRCF Stu­dents